As the two candidates square off in the Granite State, Obama's position as this election's agent of change has been usurped by McCain's bold gambits.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The Spider Bite is located at the corner of Elm and Summer Streets, about two-thirds of the way between Barack Obama's appearance at Veterans Memorial Park and Barack Obama's state campaign headquarters. Inside, the Bite is painted a florescent purple, a particularly jarring blend of blue and red pigment. A row of chairs line one wall like a doctor's waiting room, and a couple of easels allow patrons to browse various body modifications. The prudent take some time to consider what message they want embedded with this medium.

Towards the back, one artist explains the "things you have to know" about tattoos to a couple of jittery young women:

Don't worry about the price.

Don't worry about the pain.

A couple of blocks away, Barack Obama has just finished taking his new look out for a whirl. Gone is the Change We Can Believe In slogan that carried the campaign through the primaries and on to the Convention. There have been hints at a pending makeover for a week now, but New Hampshire marks its official unveiling. New slogan, new campaign signs, new colors. Less than eight weeks to go, and Change We Need has come on board.

Apparently, believing wasn't seeing.

Fall finds both candidates back in first-in-the-nation New Hampshire, and with a tightening presidential race, both Obama and McCain making a play for the Granite State's four electoral votes. Both parties are mindful that if Al Gore had won -- if Al Gore had asked Bill Clinton to campaign for him here -- in New Hampshire in 2000, hanging chads in Florida wouldn't have counted. In 2004, New Hampshire moved back into the Democratic column and in 2008 New Hampshire is poised not to pick the nominee but the president.

"Understand this, Manchester," Obama, all rolled-up shirtsleeves and earnest entreaty, tells the cheering crowd, "if we are going to bring about the change that we need, we have to understand what change is." About 7,000 of the presumably already converted, many of them not voters here but political tourists from other, safely blue, New England states, have been waiting for nearly four hours to hear this message. "Let's be absolutely clear about what change means -- change isn't just a word." Truth be told, Obama himself seems to have lost his clarity, lost his hold on change. Blindsided by McCain and Palin and their absurd claims of Change is Coming and Change You Can Verify, Obama wears the slightly uncomprehending look of someone who's just discovered that his wallet has been lifted at a Fourth of July picnic.

Not that he's unclear about who picked his pocket. But how it happened so quickly, so smoothly, and with not so much as a finger being pointed at the culprits is something he just can't get his mind around. "These times are too serious for these strategy to work this time," Obama says, statement edging towards plea. "The moment is too urgent."

You can't help but empathize with Obama's bewilderment. Only 14% of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in this country. Why are McCain and Palin still in the game?

The most radical move, of course, would be for Obama to move on, leave change behind completely. Leave the self-evident to be "discovered" by the voting public, who are never so happy as when they think they have tumbled to an original observation.

But if Obama is intent on staying the course with change, merely tweaking change is not enough. What he needs now is Change you can quote.

From his perch on a brick planter outside the park, Jon Titone is hawking T-shirts. A banker by day and a musician with a band called Never Whispered by night, Titone understands both economy of, and the poetry of, speech. On his own initiative Titone designed and printed up nearly 300 T-shirts, which he hopes to sell to benefit, the Obama campaign. For help in grasping Change you can quote, the 10-second soundbite and the three word slogan, Obama need look no further than the sidewalk.

"McCAIN/PALIN" Titone's shirts read, and then, in smaller letters "when pigs fly…". Unfortunately, many of the departing Obamaites are too busy practicing civility to read Titone's shirts carefully, instead politely grumbling about the nerve of those Republicans as they pass him by.

An exception is Angel Nebot, a lawyer from Spain who is living in Concord while working on a master's degree. Nebot gives Obama's speech high marks: "He addressed the pigs and lipsticks pretty well." A generous assessment, but perhaps it's the language difference.

Nebot thinks Titone's done the candidate one better, though. He happily hands over ten bucks for a shirt, then drapes it across his shoulders and struts up and down the walk like a victorious warrior.

Obama headquarters are open for walk-ins. Before the day is over, some 300 people will walk in and volunteer for the campaign. The Spider Bite is open for walk-ins, too. Times are tough: The Alternative Sun tanning beds are up for sale, although they've yet to put the limo, with its stainless ceiling, fiber optic stars and Candy Purple Rapture Console, up for bid on eBay. But for pretty short money you can get yourself a whole new look.

Thirty bucks gets a lip pierced, and a "common ear" costs just $10. Uncommon ears will set you back $20. But please, no talk about politics, or the management will have to "politely" ask you to leave.

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